My son is throwing across his body and is losing velo. He throws hard and has two good off speed pitches. I believe the problem is created when he comes out of his leg kick. I don’t think he is getting back leg drive and I am having a hard time trying to fix it. How can I get him to understand back leg drive and keep him closed longer and get him out front with a strong glove hand.

For a right-handed pitcher-
I can just about see his pitching, but, it appears that his stride foot is landing off to third base a lot. When the stride foot plants itself like in the picture above, in position A, instead of planting itself as near to position B as it can, the body’s weight and momentum will tend to drift the finishing posture in a swinging pattern, like in C.

If you could post a better video that’s a bit closer to your son’s pitching, that would really help.

Coach Baker beat me to the punch. Yes, he is landing closed. See screengrab below. At foot plant his back foot and front foot form a line pointing toward the third base line, not toward home plate. This closing-off requires that he throw across his body. Make sure his right foot is square against the rubber. If the heel is off the rubber, he is starting closed and this can cause being closed at foot plant. I must say, though, that I have seen some MLB pitchers land closed.

Thank you Coach Baker I’m going to post some screenshots of the fastball and the curveball. I can see what he’s doing, the problem I’m having is how to tell him to fix it. I don’t want to change too much he’s very successful at this point.

Thanks southpaw I will make
sure his heel is on the rubber I got
A good feeling it is not. Evan is in
8th grade and will be 14 early next year and hit 80 mph his last outing with good control 32-50 and
11-13 first pitch strikes. i don’t
want to change too many things and I also want him to be who he is. I think he will throw harder and safer with some small tweaks.

Not sure throwing across his body is a problem in and of itself. Wouldn’t want to teach him this way but there’s been quite a few sucessul major league pitchers who throw across their body. I know a retired one personally that spent quite a few years in the bigs with no major injuries

There are plenty of MLB pitchers who stride closed and throw across their body. In this case, the postural issues (tilt) would be more of a concern to me than just striding closed. The first thing I would do is move him to the glove side of the rubber. This is a “freebie” in that it requires no changes to how he throws.

Rationale:

Imagine a line drawn from the center of the rubber to the center of home plate. Your boy is striding away from that line. Moving him to the glove side will get him to stride toward that centerline. The shoulders want to square up to the target you’re throwing at. When you stride away from the centerline, you have a bigger corner to turn to get squared up which often results in postural issues (tilt) that can lead to other issues. When you stride toward the centerline you have a smaller corner to turn to get squared up so postural issues will be less likely.

Postural issues can lead to other issues like poor glove control and early shoulder rotation.

Take a closer look at where your son stops his glove. The body has a balancing system that uses the arms to balance itself, in a static state and when moving. You son is using that system, without realizing it, to position his glove (part of his balance) and thus his stride foot STOPS directly under that glove (balancing system) in order to feel confident while progressing forward and throughout his release (pitch).

To your son’s credit, he can manage to overcome his balance-counter balance choreography to locate his pitches.

Ask your son to go through his delivery motion in slow motion and stop his glove deliberately where he does in the picture above and watch how - instantly, his stride foot stops its forward reach. That stride foot will plant itself directly under his glove hand. Now go through the same slow motion, but this time stretch the glove out directly forward in line with the heel of his pivot foot - or as Roger suggested, along a line to the plate. Watch how instantly his stride foot plants directly under the glove hand and in a direct straight line to the plate - thus eliminating that pitching across himself.

My first piece of advice to you is to never attempt to emulate MLB pitchers They get away with making more mistakes than carter has pills, my next piece of advice is to never become awe struck by success over good basic mechanics and fundamentals which when executed properly breeds more success than not. doing well does not always mean that all is well in the hen house, Look at all of those who have done well and yet have fallen to Tommy John surgery, even those as young as {10yrs old} The majority of those who step on that rubber never learn, are not taught how to properly use their body’s during the pitching body’s movement from the rubber to stride foot touch, plant down on up the body’s kinetic chain into the arm into and out the finger tips, I view numerous instructional sessions and listen to numerous conversations, I have yet to hear about the {three body pivots} involved, or about the hips being the body’s first move away from the rubber or what the body’s kinetic chain is /consists of and it’s {sequential movements} etc and that {one’s body movement} from the rubber is a {sideways} {closed body} positional route to stride foot touch down followed by hip to shoulder separation, meaning that at stride foot touch, plant down the hips rotate from their closed position while very momentarily the shoulders remain closed and immediately thereafter the shoulders follow suit and execute their job. aspiring coaches, pitchers and all others involved with giving pitching advice who are not aware of these along with other very important body movements are surely being short changed knowledge wise.
GreatBaseBall-N
Don Erviname392002@yahoo.com

Could you address the specifics of the youngster in the video, step by step in his video of where your advice pertains, movement by movement, frame by frame of him, so he can learn from your advice, and your observations of others less knowledgeable than yourself.

Thanks for your reply and your advice Coach. I always go over video with him I just wanted to show you guys the latest video and to see if he made some adjustments from the time I originally started this thread.

Mike, my request was to BeisBol. His narration/post was specific as to his observations and suggestions of what he considers to be the correct choreography for the physical sequences of movement. Hence I requested that he take your son’s motion, with the frame by frames provided and point out his observations - and where, as he outlined in his posting.

South Paw, fellas,
Who cares how MLB players execute their individualized game skills?
It is not relevant as to whether MLB players throw across their body sand have success doing so, we are not dealing with MLB pitchers and position players with years of experience who make every mistake in the book and get away with doing so, aside from that they do execute some excellent aspects of their overall game play, when one attempts to copy MLB players one is copying their goods and bad’s not knowing which one is which, to copy others one must have the knowledge and ability to separate the good from the not so good, which the average persons, coaches, parents, players etc cannot do, it is a guessing game drawn to opinionated conclusions, the very reasons why our athletes are receiving wrong messages concerning the improvement of their individual skills and overall game play. personal opinion is one of the roots of inferior teaching and instruction,.
GreatBaseBall-N
Don Erviname392002@yahoo.com